CNN
—
First woman Dr. Jill Biden is hitting the marketing campaign path on a double mission this week, courting older voters to assist her husband’s reelection bid whereas additionally tackling voters’ issues about his age.
“This isn’t nearly stopping an extremist, and this election is most definitely not about age,” the primary woman stated at an occasion in Inexperienced Bay, Wisconsin. “Joe and that different man are basically the identical age. Let’s not be fooled. However what this election is about, it’s concerning the character of the particular person main our nation.”
“Joe Biden is a wholesome, sensible 81-year-old prepared and prepared to give you the results you want day by day to make our future higher,” she added. “Joe isn’t one of the crucial efficient presidents of our lives despite his age, however due to it.”
Her remarks got here at her first cease of a three-day marketing campaign swing by way of Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, Nevada and Arizona. The marketing campaign has deployed the primary woman to assist enhance assist amongst older voters, a bunch that has usually voted Republican in presidential elections however has shifted towards President Joe Biden on this 12 months’s contest.
Age has confirmed to be an inescapable difficulty within the rematch between two seniors – Biden, 81, and former President Donald Trump, who turned 78 on Friday. However the first woman is utilizing her distinctive place as a partner of the oldest president in US historical past and a senior herself – she turned 73 final week – to talk of the advantages of growing old and attraction to an necessary voting bloc.
“The lady I’m in the present day is wiser, stronger, extra insightful and extra assured than I used to be all these years in the past,” she stated. “Each line on my face has been earned by the furrowed brows of inauspicious choices made. By the solar of numerous roads traveled, by the candy pressure of deep laughter with the folks I like. Age is a present.”
The primary woman has emerged as maybe probably the most lively surrogate for her husband’s marketing campaign. She’s jetted across the nation for political occasions and fundraisers previously 12 months whereas juggling her duties on the White Home and within the classroom. Her marketing campaign schedule is anticipated to choose up much more in the summertime months and heading into the autumn.
Dr. Biden additionally has totally embraced a job as a forceful critic of her husband’s predecessor.
“Make no mistake, Donald Trump is harmful to our livelihoods, to our safety, and the way forward for our nation,” the primary woman stated in Inexperienced Bay, Wisconsin.
She’s lambasted Trump over his therapy of girls and his stance on reproductive rights. In an interview with ABC’s “The View” final month, she spoke starkly of the competition between her husband and his predecessor, arguing voters will “choose good over evil” in November.
This week’s marketing campaign push comes as Dr. Biden continues to steadiness her tasks as a high surrogate for her husband’s marketing campaign together with her position as a key assist system for her household as they grapple with the legal and emotional fallout from her son Hunter Biden’s conviction on three felony gun fees.
The primary woman devoted a lot of the previous week and a half to offering in-person support for her son. She sat a couple of ft behind Hunter within the courtroom by way of many of the trial because the sordid particulars of his struggles with dependancy and a turbulent interval within the household’s historical past had been aired out in a Wilmington, Delaware, courtroom.
After lower than three hours of deliberation, the jury returned responsible verdicts on all three fees on Tuesday, a series of occasions that moved with such pace that the primary woman didn’t make it to court docket in time to listen to the choice learn. Dr. Biden arrived inside minutes, and after assembly together with her son, household and allies contained in the courthouse, she walked out of the constructing hand-in-hand with Hunter in a public present of solidarity.
President Biden made a final minute journey to Wilmington a couple of hours later to be at his household’s aspect, tightly embracing his solely dwelling son on the tarmac shortly after Marine One touched down in Delaware.
“Jill and I’ll at all times be there for Hunter and the remainder of our household with our love and assist. Nothing will ever change that,” the president stated in a press release after the decision was introduced.
The primary woman has but to touch upon Hunter’s conviction and is unlikely to debate it unprompted. As an alternative, she’ll spend the subsequent few days making an attempt to maintain the concentrate on her work to reelect her husband.
The primary woman’s journey this week is a part of the marketing campaign rollout of “Seniors for Biden,” an organizing effort geared toward turning out voters 65 and older.
Trump received voters 65 or older by 5 proportion factors in 2020, in line with CNN exit polls. However current surveys have proven a swing in assist amongst older voters towards Biden. On the similar time, the marketing campaign’s efforts to attract in seniors come amid indicators of a narrowing of the president’s assist in different key components of his coalition, together with younger, Black and Latino voters.
The primary woman kicked off her swing Thursday with stops in Inexperienced Bay, Wisconsin, and Duluth, Minnesota. On Friday, she’ll communicate at one other seniors-focused occasion in Reno, Nevada, with actress and activist Jane Fonda, and attend a fundraiser in Los Gatos, California. She’ll proceed the swing on Saturday with an occasion in Phoenix, Arizona.
Advisers consider the president’s pitch on strengthening Social Safety and Medicare and decreasing prescription drug prices together with the necessity to defend democracy resonates with older voters as they make their distinction arguments towards Trump.
The Biden marketing campaign is in search of inventive methods to mobilize these voters over the age of 65 heading into November. They’ve organized pickleball tournaments, bingo video games, pancake breakfasts and ice cream socials throughout key states this week.
The primary woman is betting these efforts will repay.
“No, we can’t be outlined by a quantity. And when folks underestimate us, they do it at their very own danger,” the primary woman stated in Duluth on Thursday. “Let’s present what these years can do.”
CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.